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jeeper61, I noticed those slot/Phillips brass fasteners Kory used on his 150 hp Case as well. And, my friend YOU may have asked the right guy this question! This is the flywheel side of the original #14,666 at the factory. And this was it after flat strap spokes were added to the rear wheels. Apparently round spokes couldn't take the strain this beast was able to put out. And a water tank was added behind the smokestack, for long trips it was going to be taking at the Sater Mine (maybe in Oklahoma? I don't remember) it went to for freighting on the road. Notice it pulling a string of 15 hp Case engines up a hill at the factory. Kory replicated this at Rollag, Minnesota a couple of years ago or more. After it was finished at Sater Mine, it had been used as a culvert in a road turnoff. Then it was retrieved and used as a water reservoir tank at a windmill somewhere down there. My late friend George Hedtke located it here and bought the boiler. George displayed the boiler every chance he got. I have original handwritten serial numbers and horsepower size builds of the 150 hp engines at the Racine Factory. Those records disagree with the number of them built. But that's a whole 'nother story. I think I'd posted that paperwork somewhere in the back 1,000 pages. You can look it up, if you so desire. I'd only go back and check these 1,000 pages if I were incarcerated and in Solitary Confinement! At Hedtke's estate sale a group of Case aficionados ponied up the money to buy the boiler. It is shown left of Kory's welded boiler at right. I took this photo of Farmall Kid, or son Mike, with the original 14,666 boiler at Andover in August 2018. I got this photo from SmokStak.com years ago, but it shows the original brass, tapered bucket head brass bolts that held the bronze serial number plate that is on Kory's 150 hp Case! And now... You know... The rest of the story. Gary😉

Bolted some ash 5/4 boards for the firewood hauler . We don't have oak . Didn't want to waist black cherry

I got deeper into my Frankenstein 130 /BN plowday- parade tractor than I wanted to but you always end up that way. (into engine) A few mods were necessary - left axle housing,rockshaft support,steering u- joint wouldn't clear hydraulic pump and radiator brace needed to be shortened ( front bolster mounts the radiator closer to engine at the bottom on BN but the top is 130 dimension Today I installed my buddy seat. I had to take a 3" strip out of the middle of the seat pan to gain some clearance for the lift rod ( offset to left). Won't be a problem since the wife and girls are not big bottom chicks👩‍🦰👩👩‍🦱 and the Grandkids are just little guys and girl

When I met my mentor and "adopted Grandpa" Charlie Tyler in 1954, I'd stayed with Mike Tyler a lifetime buddy whose 363 days older than me. The next morning I heard hammer licks outside. I asked Mike what that was and he said, "Grampy is working on a steam engine." So we got up, had a bowl of cereal, and went out to see what Charlie was doing and that's when I met him working on this engine, the only 40 hp Gaar Scott engine left in the USA. (There's one in Canada) This is me posing with the engine in 1958. It set in this spot for decades before Roger Byrne and my late friend Jerred Ruble bought it from Mike and Paul Tyler. After Charlie Tyler had died in the spring of 1956, he didn't get to operate his 40 hp Gaar Scott at his planned threshing bee the next September. Max and Earl Tyler went ahead with the threshing bee in September in Charlie's honor. I'd gotten to Ride on the 40 hp Gaar Scott in September of 1956, where my mentor Walter Mehmke was engineering the engine that day. He's shown standing on the side water tank working on a governor belt. Word got to Jerred Ruble via Lawrence Swanz, on SmokStak.com, that I'd ridden on the engine in 1956 and since I was a "known steam nut" was invited to Forest City, Iowa to operate the engine in 2010 after it had been restored and blessed with a brand new welded 200 psi boiler. Dear friend, Roger Byrne In 2010 learned I was headed to Jerred's show. He so extremely generously invited me to fly into Minneapolis, and take a transport to Rochester where he worked in a print shop. He picked me up outside the Mayo Clinic after he got off of work and drove me to he and DeeAnn's home ("bed and breakfast") where I stayed a few days while he showed me some once-in-a-lifetime things around his state and Iowa. I no longer recall the order in which these things happened, other than the 40 hp Gaar Scott was after these special visits. I'd dreamed of attending a Budinski Brother's steam show ca. 1955, when reading about it in an Iron Men Album given to me by Charlie Tyler. Roger took me to meet Bud Budinski, the surviving brother, and his son in-law who had this very rare simple 20 hp Port Huron Roger and I are on it for a "spin." Roger took me to an early antique Ford collector in Iowa. That gentleman let Roger and I both drive his 1905 Model F Ford, And his 1908 Model S Ford! Later Roger Was kind enough to send me a photo of the two Fords at his local show when the gentleman had them finished and shown there at Root River. Roger showed me several individual engines around Minnesota on different drives. This one was especially great for me. Roger is standing beside the huge drive wheel of a 35 hp Nichols & Shepard engine being re-restored, that my late steam friend Danny Roen used to own. I got to drive all but one of Roger's Model T Fords there at his home. These three were the exceptional ones anyway. L-R: 1927 Model T Touring Car, 1914 Model T Touring Car, and his extremely rare 1911 Model T Open Runabout. I drove that 1927 Touring Car to meet Roger's friend he was mentoring with old iron, Troy Vetsch, in a neighboring town. This was Troy's Grandpa on their Hart Parr tractor in 2019. Troy has posted on this thread some. Troy also has some McCormick-Deering things too. A 15-30 on steel and this T-20 TracTracTor. Troy is driving Roger around at a steam show with my 1912 IHC MA AutoWagon. I know Troy was careful with it. On our way back to Racine, Minnesota, Roger had me drive into this sand pit, where this postcard photo was taken. Oodles of Model TT's and a shovel nose IHC truck loaded by a steam shovel ca. 1920. Roger sent me a huge poster of this postcard that he made at his place of work back then. I know I have a photo of it on the wall of Silver Creek Shop, but I can't find it. This pit was shut down for digging. Roger explained while someone was loading sand, human bones had fallen on the ground in front of the loader. It turns out, that there had been a US Civil War Burial Site above. Then came the first day of the Forest City massive show. Roger took us there and I have a bunch of photos I wouldn't otherwise have of several old steam men at the show, and of me at the throttle of Jerred'$ Big Forty Gaar $cott. My friend Mike McKnight was up in the "crow's nest." And this photo... One of my favorite Gaar Scott photos was this one. I should have been shoveling coal into the bunker. But the "engine boss" Lawrence Swanz was doing that while Mike McKnight and I bantered. Maybe it was because Mike was up in the air where the "flying" ants were? Roger took this photo of me on my cell phone to Jerred telling him we were all ready for him to go plowing. John Titterington was at the throttle (looks like the coal shovel though) for Lawrence Swanz to hitch the plow. Thanks for these photos, Roger Byrne!! As Jerred and John were headed to plow, this happened with the steering chain. I happened to get Roger in the photo! Finally plowing, Jerred in the crows nest steering. John Titterington is apparently engineering it. Dang it. I forgot to post this photo of me in my 1912 IHC MA AutoWagon. Thanks for this photo too, Roger. This was an extremely memorable drive for me. PS: I also got this shirt. They had one made for son Mike, which I bought for him. These shirts weren't cheap. Beautifully embroidered.

Finally got out for a ride today. Still not as snow as there should be by now, but pretty good considering how little snow there is elsewhere

Tubacase47, or Tom Railsback was an early follower and an old friend of mine. He came to Silver Creek when Mike was a LTC and a Kandak Commander in Afghanistan in 2008. Tom came over and offered to mow the ground around the shed and shop, plus the rest of the upper ground for fire safety. Tom has always been the watcher of the Odometer here. We made it before Easter Tom! MT Matt, or Matt Eisenbacher has become a great friend through this site. He has beautiful IH Farmalls on his Montana Farm. But I chose this "work clothes" W9 Standard photo of him in the 2021 St. Regis 4th of July Parade. Matt has helped me with several IH parts out of the goodness of his heart! Thanks Matt. Gary😉

Not a today, but so far this winter post. 5088 got a steering pump gasket, monitor mount, painted the A pillars and wiper motor panel black, 806 wheatland got lights, fan shroud, inner fenders painted black, valve cover gasket, top end ran. New used seat, Clutch and trans brake adjusted. 856 got lights, temp guage, clutch and trans brake adjusted, going to move rears out 2 inches 706 propane got tore down for a new block.

I am impressed with your determination Oak! I was one of many guys who said don't do this project and here you are. Great work Oak ! I don't think you will have a lot of choices for the valves but I wouldn't worry too much about the valves from Reliance. Legend has it the gas starts crack between the valves and everyone fixes them. I took my W9 head to United Welding Processes in Mississauga ( Toronto) As soon as I dropped the tailgate the guy identified the head😮I thought to myself this is the right guy, They won't do it unless they remove guides and seats and do a complete valve job, They made seats and guides for my head in house. I am happy with the work, If you are not too far across the border most automotive machine shops on the Canadian side wil ship it down there for you . https://uwp.ca/en/home/ if I could be so bold as to ask how much did the sleeves cost you total to your door ?

Just moving stuff around today.

Glad to see you hit 1000 pages, Gary! That was a whole lot of work putting it together & probably not as much forgetting about it. The concept of the road locomotive has sparked the curiosity of the ferro-equinologist in me. Has it been noted anywhere, why the need for a road locomotive vs the common variety rail travelling beasts? Pacific Borax already retired the mules & switched to locomotives almost 10 yeas before that. Was the road train necessitated by the terrain or was it a budget thing & they didn't want to pay for an extensive infrastructure? David Jct. was another Milwaukee Road town, that sat on the line from Chicago to Omaha. That crossed the CB&Q branch line up to Rockford & Beloit. The Milw. had trackage rights to those towns via the CB&Q. Mike To say the line, by '79, was in need of repairs was an understatement. The 100A looks to have spent some time under the 35th St. viaduct, judging by all the bird frass on the cab. Might be on a run-through from Milwaukee vis Janesville if that was the case. Mike

I wonder what that vehicle was stopped for in the first place? I see people getting pulled over all the time around here for nuisance offenses. Pulling cars over for no good reason creates dangerous situations that shouldn’t even exist in the first place. People don’t pay attention and getting your car slammed into on the side of the road because your license plate light is out is stupid.

Congratulations on 1000 pages, Gary! I have really enjoyed reading and listening in over the years. Thank you for keep this going!

This was 1939 IH Farmall H Annie after I gave her a bath a few years ago. It was on the Yaeger Farm four years before I was born, so it has always been special to me! She's a very dear IH Tractor on a Montana Farm for this old guy!

Good morning Gary and I’m glad you were the one to trip the odometer over to 1000! I can with all honesty say that I have read every page and post of your thread. The massive amount of knowledge and photos within this thread is amazing. I’m proud to have met you and your family plus be included in your threshing days. Thank you! Congrats on your latest addition to your family! I was able to meet up with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter Josie at the St Louis aquarium earlier this month. Josie is the little one on the right marveling at the fish. She talked grandpa into getting her a stuffed otter while there. It didn’t take much to make that happen. 😂 She was ready for the football game yesterday too! I was at my youngest sister’s house last week in North Carolina. She is in the middle of the picture. My middle sister is on the left, her and her husband came down from Virginia for the weekend. It was nice to have all of us together, it doesn’t happen very often! I’m about half way done with my sales trip pedaling fishing lures. It’s enjoyable but I can’t wait to get back home to my IH tractors on the Montana farm!

Was finally able to use the sled this year with a 3 hr drive north to my buddy's cabin not nearly enough to go riding and the lakes were too slushy to ride around. But, we couldn't have asked for better conditions to maintain the winter trail in. There's about 1/3 mile of swamp that's impassable all summer. This was grown in to the point that brush was scratching the side panels. With a little chainsaw work and my DR, we have a real trail again. That 22 hp DR is worth every penny, it didn't care a lick about the 10" of snow.

Arnold Motor Supply has about 50 stores. The closest to you would be 2500 52nd Ave, Moline, Il. I know they can fix yours as a friend took a John Deere head to them with way to many cracks. He watched the process of fixing one. The head, after welding, goes into a CNC and a couple minutes later, looks like new. He was amazed and he is not easily impressed. His head came back looking brand new and you could not see where it had been welded. It had new seats and valves installed. I believe they only fix them at the store NE of Des Moine, IA. But if you get it to one of their stores, they will freight it to their shop and back. Website says to call for a quote: Phone: 515-382-2791 Toll-Free: 800-873-8506 Give them a call?

You got me thinking that there is a place in Cecil Ohio that did work like that last I knew. Called Hearts Machine Service. Not going to miss it in that town because its the biggest building in a town that if you blink. You would miss it. And since he is in my general area Hearts would be a reasonable distance to drive it to to drop it off. If interested in the number. Let me know.

I visited your boat and some lovely classics today, Sailor.

nothing routine about this traffic stop. 😮

Congratulations Gary on making the big 1000... or as Romans used to say.."the big M". Now might be a good time for me to say that this "IH tractor on Montana Farm" thread is one of the first ones l ever posted on long time ago in 2011. And have many memories of reading posts of friends that are no longer here such as Harold H, John A and Anson. And since you brought it up, l gotta say l sure miss reading about and contributing to "The Great Mississippi Missing Watermelon Caper".

as a matter of fact YES!!! i spent a few hours at the care facility they moved him to on Wed/Thurs my days slip by, my wife and I took him some goodies and he is still cathed/stooling on a bed pan, cannot move him, tried lifting him with the glorified cherry picker and with his legs and hips being pinned/screwed/plated together it was a disaster and they said no more of that, back to a bed pan. he said 8 to 12 weeks per dr orders before ANY pressure/bending/weight bearing etc...... everything has to heal before they will allow anything its just too fragile they place he is at is a funeral home where they basically take people that will never care for themselves again, he is the youngest there by 30 yrs his fingers done move yet, just twitch on the reattached hand but all 5 of them are getting spikes from the brain which is positive, eye is back to about 75% he thinks, arm looks like a prop in a halloween movie but its still attached. he is opened up on his right left from his ankle to his hip, like a giant zipper on a pair of carharts!!! right up the side he is in good spirits, loves the lord and is grateful for his life - stories of healing with family issues, daughter is stepping up for care of him and found out it appears the guy fell asleep at the wheel - he was a ride share driver and had been up since early am driving and was returning from a long trip, someone had reported him before the wreck several miles south of KC weaving and running off the road and said he was very RELAXED at the wheel so didnt know if it was drugs or what but that was a substantial find he gleened from the police report he received last week NOTE: his work wife ( lead guy at work ) started a support fund and when his company found out they are matching whatever he gets from that - his bills ( rent/utilities ) are all paid for 6 mos already - they expecting he will be a year in recovery at this point and unable to work - his landlord actually visited him in the hospital ( austin lives in a small ( very modest ) apt complex since he got divorced. Back story = he was one of 17 people interviewed and his credit score was 250, he was straight up with the landlord and the landlord actually went out to his home/acreage he was losing back to the bank because his wife had not been making payments ( he was working in williston nd as a pipline welder ) and coming home every 3 wks at the time . He was in a desperate place when we met him and helped him move and took on his two dogs also because they couldnt go to the Apt he and his two kids were moving into. The landlord picked him over the other people with much better situations/credit. The landlord came and told him he talked to his company and they would not kick him out and would allow him to defer payments/even portions of whatever he couldnt pay and they would work it out over the long haul. God has really showed up in BIG WAYs in this deal @zleinenbach not any different than zach has shared of his current situation Never underestimate what God can do

OBG I see your thread as made it too 1k pages I have certainly enjoyed all the old photos Thank You for sharing

Seems only fitting you took us to 1000, congrats Gary on a priceless thread of Montana history 😊

Well, I don't know one darn thing, so I thought I may as well post a few photos. I love this blacksmith shop photo with 9 steam engines to work on, I'd guess. It's not a steam show. Over at the very far left is a photo of something I can't identify. It appears to have an early Pickering washer shim adjusting governor. The smokestack has an after-market South Bend spark arrestor. That all throws me. The next one, broadside is a Geiser return flue. Behind it is a Buffalo Pitts double-cylinder straight flue. the next has a lot of Huber return flue attributes, but the hubs aren't really visible. I could be mistaken that it is a Minneapolis return flue, but I don't think so. The next engine is an Avery return flue with a Monarch tender on the back. The next engine is an Advance with a South Bend spark arrestor, the next a 20 hp Case with an odd spark arrestor, the next is a Minneapolis return flue and the last one at right is a Russell. This is a steam engine boiler shop up in Quebec, Canada. An early return flue portable engine of some kind is at right. An early "boot top" smokestack Reeves is busy stack threshing. I love this photo of my late Reeves friend and mentor, Max Tyler and his little brother Clifford with their 32 hp Reeves cross compound US engine and a ca 1923 Model TT Ford C-Cab truck. This was my dad on 32 hp Reeves cross compound Canadian Special #7181 in 1930, when their engine was broke down. Herman Otten owned the engine and was brother in-law of Uncle Frank Yaeger, who arranged for borrowing it. Herman bought it F.O.B. Glengarry, Montana in 1914 for $3,200 or $100 per horsepower. While Dad was engineer, the countershaft broke in this engine. None were available from Emerson Brantingham (Reeves) anymore. They got the countershaft out of a 40 hp Reeves at Stanford, Montana and Uncle Audie turned it down on their South Bend lathe with a 16 foot bed. They returned it in like condition. My late cousin Harold Yaeger is walking out to see his dad while his mother (Otten's sister-in-law) took the photo. Herman Otten sold the 32 hp Reeves Canadian Special to Babe Lewis to power his sawmill on the Cottonwood - Beaver Creek divide. I don't know when or how much. But Charlie Tyler, Earl, Max, and Clifford Tyler's dad had wanted to buy this engine at Pugsley Crossing on the Marias River that is now at Osage, Iowa after the Smolik Brothers bought it in 1955 or 56. Pugsley's wanted an unheard of $3,000 for this engine. The Smolik's were willing to pay more than any Montana collector that wanted this engine, at $2,750. Max Tyler told me his dad Charlie sat in a chair in the shop most of the day and cried after it sold. If the Smolik Brothers hadn't bought 40 hp Reeves #6867, I wouldn't have gotten to plow with it twice. Son Mike was just finished plowing a round in this photo at Osage in August of 2007. That is Roger Byrne's 1914 Model T Ford Touring Car behind the engine. This was the day I met Roger! This likely wouldn't have happened if the engine had stayed in Montana. In earlier years, Charlie Tyler had looked at this 40 hp Reeves near Havre, Montana, but didn't want it because it was a US engine with a lap-seam boiler and it was an experimental engine without the cab. The one above was a Canadian Special with a butt strap boiler. When Charlie didn't get the engine above, he went back to see about buying this one near Havre. It had been scrapped. So, Charlie Tyler went to the Babe Lewis Sawmill and bought this 32 hp Reeves cross compound Canadian Special. He paid a whopping (for that time) $900 for it. He never got to see it run at the Tyler farm. He died in September of 1956. I was his last visitor. I'd driven over on back roads to visit with my "adopted grandpa" (since I didn't have any living) with Dad's 1947 half-cab Jeep. I felt sucker punched when I found out the next day he was dead. At his funeral, I met the Mehmke family who were there for their friend's funeral. I'm posing with #7181 in 1958 which my dad had engineered back in 1930 on our farm. The Tyler's planned a day for plowing with #7181 in 1958. Since I was a sophomore at Moore High School and found out they were plowing that day, I didn't have time for a written excuse 10 miles from home, so I skipped school to watch them plow. Mom was very mad about having to go visit with Mr. Tindall, the Superintendent-Principal. Dad had a grin on his face and seemed darn proud of my caper. Walter and Carl Mehmke were guest engineers of the engine plowing that day. This photo was something that was in the Great Falls Tribune, which had Max Tyler sitting on the toolbox inside the coal bunker. Years later, after the engine had set outside, Max and Earl put the engine in their new shed to house engines. I took this photo of Max standing beside the left driver of 7181, some time before he passed away. Note that cap, Roger! I'd accompanied a Butte America friend to Tyler's so he could buy a Nichols & Shepard engine from Mike Tyler. I had my friend take this photo of me beside that same driver. A Pennsylvania friend took this photo of 7181 as it looks today in the shed. Max told me the engine would always set right here. I'd love to run the engine and have offered to do the necessary work to get it out and going. But it fell on deaf ears. Notice some of the yellow Caterpillars Max Tyler restored over the years, that went to Caterpillar in Peoria for their Cat museum. In August of 2018, after my cancer operation, Mike and I drove to Andover, South Dakota to witness the introduction of Kory Anderson's 150 hp Case to the world. Jack and Colin Beamish are up there tending the engine while I visited our steam lives with Jack. I posed with Kory Anderson and our friend, "Mr. Case", Chady Atteberry in his "choo-choo" cap, alongside the 150 hp Case. Mike and I kind of posed this photo to show the size of that monster engine. Farmall Kid and I are both about 5' 10" tall. This was the first original 150 hp Case, #14,666 at the factory. John Loeffelmacher, design engineer for this size engine is at the right, showing the size of the engine (and the men?) This was a practice among a few engine companies to use short men in their advertisement photos. Kory has the boiler for the above engine #14,666 and borrowed the bronze serial number tag to put on his 150 hp Case. (Doesn't make his 150 Case a "restoration" instead of a replica? I've heard when you have original pieces, it's considered a restoration.) Here are a couple of smaller Rumely Oilpull "gas" (kerosene) engines pulling binders in a grainfield. Here is an Engineer Training School for the US Army using a 30-60 J.I. Case gas tractor to pull stumps. A late friend of Rogers and mine had one that sold at auction for a few bucks under $1.5M in the past couple of years. A 15-30 Type F Rumely Oilpull is hitched to a threshing machine. The Tyler Brothers owned this 8-16 IHC Mogul tractor. I fell in love with it, but they sold it. My Dad is on the seat of this 15-30 McCormick-Deering hitched to a Model 21 Advance-Rumely combined harvester at their "Rock Creek Camp." I don't know what the shed was there, but closer is the Yaeger Brother's Cook Car. A South Dakota Farmer has his son sitting on the seat of his early McCormick-Deering Farmall Regular. His daughter is at lower left and I'd assume his wife took the photo. This Sixty Best Tracklayer is pulling a wagon load of logs to be loaded for the sawmill or dropping them off at a sawmill in the woods. This tractor was carried over as the Caterpillar Sixty in the 1925 merger between Best and Holt. It was a proven workhorse. A farmer is pulling home "bred" Corn "?chopper?" (I'm not from corn country) with his IH Farmall A. This is a real early 1939 or 1940 IH Farmall A without a starter and an all-plastic covered steering wheel, like my Tony! This young girl and her sister are having to back up the trailer because they can't go forward. I'd loved to have watched this process after the photo was taken! I think I already put his photo on here of the two guys in Dakota with their Indian Bike. It doesn't appear to be able to go anywhere with the kickstand down. This isn't exactly Hardtail's brand, but it is a hard tail bike. A Bonanza Farm on the Great Northern Railway is having a photo taken to show how lucrative farming is. But all railroads did that to entice people to start farming. The Railroad would be hauling their crops from the elevators in little towns along the tracks with an elevator and likely a water source for the steam locomotives. This advertisement from the Milwaukee RR was always special to me and Anson really loved it. And while farming in that area it's plowing up, I sure never hit any gold coins as shown here. Some of my happiest and saddest times were there on that farm. I like this photo from 1883 of Billings, Montana's Minnesota Street. It was a hot spot then. But now it is "the wrong side of the tracks"! Most of this area had been called Coulson, and this part of Billings eventually joined and it was all Billings then. Incidentally, when my Grandma Rosalie (Regli) Yaeger arrived with two cousins from Andermatt Switzerland in the late fall of 1883, they arrived at Coulson aboard a Northern Pacific train that had just crossed the Missouri River at Bismarck, (North) Dakota Territory over their new bridge. This is that general area of Billings with a big parade of engines in Billings. The rear tractors are IHC Moguls or Titans? There are a string of Reeves steam engines ahead of the gas tractors. And... notice that IHC AutoWagon parked at right. It's like the one that I'm driving on that cup Roger sent me I'm drinking tea out of beside my right elbow. Roger is supposed to Will that truck of his to me. But I'd have to drive it to Helena with a load of corn since Anson isn't raising watermelons anymore. I look pretty fair at the wheel of my 1912 IHC AutoWagon, don't I! I found the next two photos in a trunk of my great aunt's after her death. The only legal hanging in Fergus County Montana of murderer Billy Calder. My late brother Bill wrote a book about the incident. A 300-pound box of weights was dropped doing a pull-up hanging. This is a Lewistown Public Library photo of the hanging. Note the weight box at left. Of course I have this photo of brother Bill's book cover and wife Sharon's book, Rosalie and Buttermilk Curve, the story of my grandparents and Grandma Rosalie who furnished cool buttermilk in the hot July construction of the Milwaukee RR loop around our place. This photo of the farm I left in 1980, taken about 1952, shows Buttermilk Curve railroad tracks around our farmstead. I've said before, I was the only kid in school at Glengarry (shown above our house on the bench) with a steam locomotive on three sides of our house! In the lower right-hand corner was the worn-out 32 hp Reeves cross compound Canadian Special of the Yaeger Brothers that broke down in 1930. The boiler was shot on it. Dad traded the Reeves for this operating 20-70 Nichols & Shepard in 1954. This was at our farm in the spring of 1955. Uncle Bill tending the water, me and Mike Tyler on the engine and Dad admiring us kids! This was the IH 4568 (an IH Tractor on a Montana Farm), the Russell and Case steam engines at the farm not long before the place went into the dump and I left it in 1981 after seeding for the new owner. Uncle Bill in the blue shirt was the last of Dad's generation and poses with me in 1980. The 4568 is in the field with the #55 IH Chisel Plow. Also my 1972 GMC Sierra Grande pickup, the finest pickup I've ever had. I grew up around four of these McCormick-Deering TD-40 Diesel TracTracTors, so I had to post this. It's an IH Tractor on a Montana Farm too. And last but not least are our 1935 McCormick-Deering Farmall F-12 "Johnny," 1940 IH Farmall A "Tony," 1942 IH Farmall M "Toot." and our venerable 1939 IH Farmall H, "Annie," serial number FBH681 or the 181st one built. IH Tractors on a Montana Farm! Gary😉

Yesterday ,I installed the tune up magneto on the Farmall C .Installed charge up battery. After that I in stalled the rebuilt generator wire it and polarized it. I started it with the rebuilt starter. Whirled it over and it fired like it always does. Very happy Farmall C man ! Went into the house to warm up cold fingers . Maybe adjust the valves and adjust the Governor control rods if I want !

Has anyone on here ever polished out a headlight mounting panel or maybe had one chrome plated? I took one to a local chrome shop and got a ballpark quote of $600-$700. I decided to give polishing a try first. I honestly wasn't even sure if it was aluminum or just a pot-metal. Either way, I knew it was die cast and that can cause some discoloration and other imperfections so I wasn't sure if it would work. I think I got lucky and got a good one. It went fairly well and I thought I would share by results. I will say it is far from perfect and it is a lot of work. There are definitely some places that just won't shine very well but overall, I think it is good enough to work. The whole idea of this is not for restoration, but for a custom touch on a pulling tractor. The owner of the tractor really likes his aftermarket chrome grille. This has always bothered me because the upper grille doesn't match and my OCD can't handle it! On top of that, we have been using the cheap aftermarket plastic headlight mounting panels and they cannot handle the heat from the turbos. The horizontal bars that the emblem attaches too keep melting and changing shape. I put a new one in it last year and it melted on the very first run down the track at the Louisville farm show. After that, I decided we are going back to the factory "aluminum" one, so here it is. By the way, as I alluded to, it is not my tractor but I've been the painter from the start. Kent and Sandy Payne are great friends and awesome tractor pullers. They have done very well and I do my best to keep it looking good. The pics of the tractor below are from a fresh paint job this time last year. I am currently finishing up a few parts that got trashed during last season and getting ready for Louisville again in a few weeks.

There is a place in central Iowa that welds heads and such. Think now owned by Arnold's motor supply. They had a good reputation under previous owners. No idea if they are still good but I think our only local ish option. Might be close enough for you to check out? If not maybe someone more in your area.

Thank Gary and all the others that had this rolling good before I showed up. If one was getting bord you go start at the beginning and get a whole norther education.

Thank you Gary for all of the Montana lore you have posted in the short 4-5 years I have been on the Forum. I had a chance 15-20 years ago to see much of the Tyler collection when visiting my Robert Lenz, south and east of Moore. He is buried in the Moore cemetery.

IIRC he has mentioned a BTD 8?

Have seen that done 4 or 5 times on those lines on 300/400 successfully. Think my 350 is that way IIRC

These guys traveled from Wasilla Alaska to Menno South Dakota for a tune up before a big 500 mile oval race (Soo I-500)! https://www.facebook.com/reel/348589471466851?fs=e&mibextid=UalRPS

no there is not a go fund me let me see what I can find out about the current fund that company is matching

Is there an " Austin" Go Fund Me account we can support or any other account to help out financially?

Thank you, guys, for your kind words about me and Montana. When I started this thread with the encouragement of Hardtail, I sure never thought we'd be HERE today. But I probably stated once or twice (maybe more?) that I've never been accused of being "normal!" And that Normal is just a setting on a clothes dryer. I always related this photo of a MW AutoWagon hauling some kind of melons to Anson and his melons, delivering them up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, leaving the Missouri to come up here to Helena a few miles. It always made for good conversation even if it never happened. Now I just have to think of Roger delivering a load of corn in my 1912 MA AutoWagon. Thanks again followers of this nonsense! Gary😁

Thank you Gary for sharing the Montana history with us and congrats on the 1000 pages

Finally a little update. Got the leaky radiator out, have a good one to put in when I get that far. Just glad to get anything done this time of year.

alot of those heads can be repaired but........finding that 50 80 yr old..person ......... source your other parts from brazil but I am sure china owned ,just warmed over in sheep skin.

It's been a while since I posted an update on this. I got sleeves made in Brazil, total seal made custom rings for me, I had to take the block to the machine shop a couple times and I had to take the crank back because they didn't grind the thrust faces for the center bearing. The bottom end is together and I'm just now taking a look at the head. Two of the intake valves are rusted very badly, but even worse than that, there's at least 4 cracks in three cylinders. I'm 95% sure it's shot but I want some more expert opinions before I drop a grand on a head. I did find one and it's only an hour and a half from me so I'm not terribly worried.

Nicely done, Tim!!

Rebuilt a battery box for the original 8950 we got in the Dec of 99. 19,000 hours or so on it now. Was starting hard and one battery was lower than the other. I might have to check cables also but battery box was getting corroded . I've seen worse . Think someone aftermarket makes one that's what I need to do next time. I used some 11 gauge I had here . I see one seam to finish welding and I have to drill hold down bolt holes yet

The 30 dollar fleabay fender has arrived.

Is your clutch switch working?

Wasn't sure where to post this but I think this is the right thread for it! When I headed to town this morning I saw this pickup in the ditch, on a minimum maintenance road. The only guy that lives on that road is clear at the other end only a couple hundred yards from the North/South road. This 'fellow', made it about that same couple hundred yards from the pavement on the West side. Only thing I can figure is they were "Coyote hunting". Not real crazy about how they hunt them but they do help keep them thinned out. At any rate, wonder how many moons it will be before he gets that thing out of the ditch and back on the road?

That's it, Lorenzo wins the day, maybe the year!

National corn hole champion?? Mike

In between other projects this summer I picked up this 72 1310 in April. Worked on it pretty hard in July and August. My goal was to take it back "home" to show the family I bought it from and take it to their hometown steam and tractor show. I made it, was able to putz around the grounds. Found a different used engine to put in it. Resealed some things. New tires on the front. Different seat. Got the lights working. Still needs some work yet. Waiting on a radiator to be built for it. Finish the brakes. And either do a rear axle swap, or fix the differential.